TALKING ABOUT YEARS: BCE & CE (OR BC & AD)

Hello and welcome back to the Daily Vitamin. I hope you had a great weekend.

Some time ago we received a request from one of our readers; she wrote: When I studied English I was taught that years were said in two parts: nineteen ninety-six (1996), for example. But I have doubts now with the 2000s. How do you say, 2005 or 2010?

This is an excellent question, and to answer it we have decided to do a comprehensive review of the pronunciation of years in English. However, before we answer this specific question, we are going to go back in time and look at some common abbreviations for referring to historical periods: BC (BCE) and AD (CE).

BC (BCE): This abbreviation stands for the words before Christ and it is used after a date to refer to a time before the birth of Jesus Christ. More recently, people use BCE (= before common era), since it avoids explicitly Christian wording while still using the same globally recognized calendar system.

Example 1: Julius Cesar was born in 100 BC.

Example 2: Alexander the Great died in Babylon in 323 BCE.

AD (CE): This abbreviation stands for the Latin words Anno Domini, which mean in the year of the Lord and it is used after a date to refer to a time after the birth of Jesus Christ. More recently people use CE (=common era), to avoid the religious connotations. 

Example 3: The historical period of the Early Middle Ages is considered to have begun around the year 400 AD. 

Example 4: The Roman Empire became Christian in the 4th century CE.

Tomorrow we will continue with the pronunciation of years in English.

⇒ To get some writing practice in English, I encourage you to write your own sentence (or two) with today's abbreviations. You can post your sentences to one of our social media sites (Facebook or Bluesky) and we will give you feedback about your writing ASAP.

Have a pleasant day!